Working towards a healthier Dalhousie

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Note: This post deals with beliefs about body image that may be upsetting for some.

Execerpts from “Stress eating is life-affirming and can help us cope in troubled times”

Maybe you just had an extra couple of crackers. Or was it a couple of packets of crackers, or chocolate bars, or slabs of cheese? I dunno. There are a few things I do know though.

One, I know you are worthy of respect whatever you eat or don’t eat. However closely you match up to, fall away from, or waver around your own or someone else’s idea of what you should be eating or aiming for, or what you weigh, or how you should be coping/meditating/colouring in/managing your mood or otherwise responding to stress.

The second thing I know for sure is that I’m me and you’re you. And everything is connected. So I can know what works for me, and I can share what other people have found helpful, but only you can know if it’s useful for you just now.

You’re in distress so you eat, now you’re distressed because you’ve eaten. Friend, when we have been taught we are lesser because we ate our way through to survival using food for soothing or numbing or distracting or landing in or distancing from our body we have been taught the way to judgement. We have been taught a social script that ignores trauma. We have been taught to ignore the value and meaning of our own experience. We have been taught that some bodies and lives are more equal than others. We have been taught to deny our interconnection. We have learnt to think in a way that is oppressive and all this is wrong wrong wrong.

It’s ok to use food to get through. If eating like this, or other things you do, are a source of distress, how about we talk about expanding your options? Having a longer Comfort Menu to turn to can mean you’ve still got comfort eating and you’ve got more than comfort eating. Creating more choices can also mean fewer painful emotions to cope with, as you’re beating yourself up for how you cope less often.